Reince Priebus says subpoenas will be issued soon in Wisconsin review of election that will cost $680,000 or more
Patrick MarleyMADISON - Wisconsin lawmakers will spend hundreds of thousands to review the presidential election and will soon issue subpoenas as part of their effort, according to Reince Priebus, the former head of the state and national arms of the Republican Party.
Priebus, the first chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, made the comments Tuesday on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's podcast. He described the plans three days after Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester met with Trump about his plans to review the election.
Vos has faced pressure from both the left and right as he seeks to examine an election that courts have determined was conducted properly. Joe Biden narrowly won the state and gained a handful of votes in recounts requested by Trump in Dane and Milwaukee counties.
Priebus told Bannon that Republicans who control the Legislature had agreed to "fully fund" an investigation that would cost "about $680,000, at least to start." He did not say whether the funds would come from taxpayers, donors or a mix of the two.
Vos this summer hired former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to oversee the review. Gableman in November contended the election was stolen.
"I’m told that subpoenas are going to be issued in the next week or two," said Priebus, who before his stint with Trump led the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican National Committee.
"There'll be more outside money coming into Wisconsin," said Priebus, who has long been friends with Vos.
In a statement, Vos confirmed he had approved spending more on Gableman's efforts but did not disclose how much. He said he would be hiring contractors to help Gableman but did not name them.
"We believe a cyber-forensic audit is necessary to ensure issues did not happen in 2020," Vos said in his statement.
Vos did not describe what he meant by a "cyber-forensic audit." Both he and Gableman have said in recent weeks that there were no clear definitions describing what a forensic audit is.
Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who serves as chairwoman of the bipartisan state Elections Commission, said Republicans are engaging in unfortunate efforts that sow distrust in an election that courts have repeatedly upheld.
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"I think that these multiple attempts to invalidate Wisconsin’s elections are a waste of taxpayer dollars and a waste of the time of the individuals involved," she said.
This month Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, the chairwoman of the Assembly Elections Committee, issued her own subpoenas in an attempt to seize ballots and voting machines from Brown and Milwaukee counties.
Nonpartisan legislative attorneys have said Brandtjen's subpoenas are invalid because Vos hasn't signed them. Priebus didn't say whether Vos would sign Brandtjen's subpoenas or have Gableman issue new ones seeking different documents.
If Vos and Gableman seek ballots or voting machines, they could quickly find themselves in a legal fight with clerks, Democrats or the U.S. Department of Justice. The department has warned states that seizing such material could violate a federal law that requires election officials to maintain control of election records for 22 months after each election.
Brandtjen and some other Republicans have pushed Vos to conduct an election audit similar to a partisan, months-long review of ballots in Arizona.
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Election security experts and other critics, including some high-profile Republicans in Arizona, have called the review sloppy and untrustworthy. It is being conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based computer firm that has never before reviewed election results.
Gableman this month visited Arizona to talk to officials conducting a partisan election review in that state and attended a South Dakota forum hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has promoted baseless conspiracy theories that China hacked the election.
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Rep. Mark Spreitzer, a Beloit Democrat who sits on the Assembly Elections Committee, said Vos has caved to pressure from Trump and his allies after resisting it for months. He said Vos's recent meeting with Trump — and the photo of it Vos posted on Facebook — proved to be a turning point.
"He needed the photo op so that he could satisfy Republicans back here in Wisconsin. And he had to pay for the photo and he’s paying for the photo by giving Trump what he wants," Spreitzer said.
Vos and other top lawmakers have faced mounting calls in recent weeks from Republicans who say they need to more fully investigate the election. Dozens of county Republican Party chapters have approved resolutions or issued statements asking for further review.
Jefferson Davis, a former village president of Menomonee Falls, said he is helping line up thousands of volunteers and donors who could help with a review of the election. He declined to name computer experts who he said he is working with.
He said he believed a review would turn up problems that could lead to state lawmakers trying to revoke the state's 10 Electoral College votes and holding another election or declaring Trump the winner. But there is no mechanism for reversing electoral votes and Davis acknowledged such an effort would draw immediate legal challenges.
He said he wanted experts to analyze voting machines to see if they had been compromised and examine ballots to see if any of them were fake. But there has been no evidence of such tampering during the recounts and a slew of court cases.
Davis, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor campaign finance violations in 2005, said the election review should include having volunteers knock on the doors of thousands of voters to confirm they live where they say they live. Democrats said such a plan would risk intimidating or harassing voters.
"This is the most sick, despicable, evil, toxic thing you could ever imagine in the history of our state," Davis said of the way the 2020 election was run. "And we are never going to allow that to happen."
Priebus calls for wide-ranging review
On Bannon's show, Priebus said officials need to look into whether people or groups ballots for others, which he called "ballot harvesting." There were no indications this happened on a large scale in Wisconsin in 2020.
He also called for examining whether any ballots were "machine created or anything like that." Some conservatives have questioned whether some ballots were filled out by machines before they were cast, but they have offered no evidence that it happened.
Priebus said officials need to review the state’s voter rolls, which are publicly available and are routinely monitored by political activists from both sides. The state Supreme Court in a 5-2 ruling in April determined election officials had properly maintained the voter rolls when considering whether people had moved.
Priebus said Gableman needs to “forensically review” absentee ballots that were cast by voters who said they were indefinitely confined because of age or disability. Under state law, those voters don’t have to show ID to vote absentee.
Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.